To Read & To Write

“Roadside Picnic”, by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, was originally published in 1972. It is the book that Andrei Tarkovsky’s cult classic movie, “Stalker” (1979), is based off. The story describes a Planet Earth made strange by the visit and quick departure of an unknown alien race. The title – “Roadside Picnic” – comes from the idea of a family picnic, in which the family has its blanket and foods (sandwiches, containers, baskets, grapes, cigarettes, wine, etc.) while the animals – the squirrels and the deer, etc - watch from behind bushes and trees. The family abruptly leaves, not picking up after themselves, leaving their trash and litter behind. In the book, two of the main characters liken the alien visit to the roadside picnic. What the aliens leave behind after their picnic are objects so technologically advanced no one really understands how any of it works (such as a ring that, once spun, never stops spinning), as well as strange pockets of time and even stranger sp...